Art News Indo

The Internet has caused a shift in infrastructure that is affecting all media based industries which also includes many of the arts. We have seen similar shifts in the economic landscape of the past. Many professions simply disappeared as technology changed. Indeed, some arts and crafts have fallen to less expensive means of production. It is unfortunate in many cases that we lost generations of skills that we will never see again in our lifetimes.

Not all crafts have fallen into obsolescence. Many arts and crafts continue in different forms. I believe the media and the associated media based arts remain an important part of our society and will continue for a long time. However, I suspect it will continue in a different form than what baby boomers knew as children. It will take a while for completion of this cycle, but I think it is starting to take some shape.

Media publishing businesses have lost a lot of market share in recent years. Traditional media is banking on products such as the new Apple iPad to help prevent an additional loss of revenue. This will perhaps help to gain a foothold at the more profitable end of the distribution curve, but the damage has already been done. While traditional publications may not be restored to the pinnacle of their previous existence, they will find ways to hold onto existing market share as the new models emerge to challenge the old. Like many good investors, traditional media will accept new trends and eventually embrace the new models. They will end up somewhere in the middle of the current landscape. Nonetheless, it will look very different.

The concept of the starving artist living in a cold walk up apartment has been around a long time. In the days of Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Goya, artists could be considered freelance, unless they could find a wealthy patron to support them. Today, there are many freelance art jobs available if you know where to look. The Internet affords the opportunity to post requirements for all sorts of jobs. Jobs in the field of art are just one example of the kinds of positions you can find on the freelance sites.

Artists in various fields are needed. Graphic arts are used in designing websites, newspaper ads and other advertising flyers and brochures. Artists may bid on a single job or a series of jobs from one employer. Often these jobs are to complete a single project with the promise of more if the outcome is satisfactory.

Artists who bid on freelance jobs generally must dedicated to working without direct supervision. They must be able to translate a mental picture of someone else into a visual image that meets the specifications. Often deadlines are short and the pay per work may be limited. Because the work is contracted using the internet, a competent graphic arts designer can live and work almost anywhere.

Entertainment news publications and online editions have sections written by critics. These could be movie reviews for a film that has released at a theater near you. It could also be the music reviews for an album that is slowly climbing up the charts. Critics have been panned by artists for centuries. Many artists relegate critics to the sidelines with the strong belief that they have taken up criticism only because they have not been able to create art themselves. But that opinion is not free from fallacy. Critics do their job and that job has a purpose.

The primary job of the critic is to inculcate good taste among audiences and viewers. Entertainment news portals are their media. Because a large chunk of the people read these entertainment news sites, the critics can reach out to more people with their views and opinion about things. The movie reviews that they write tell the audience what they can expect from the movie. They tell you if the movie ticket is worth your money or not. I’m not saying that you accept their opinion as gospel truth, but when learned critics say something, they must have some reason for doing so.

In the field of music, critics have a special to play as well. Music reviews inform and educate listeners about the trends of modern music. Being a connoisseur in music and performing arts, the critic manages to pack in his knowledge about music when he writes music reviews. The opinion of the critic is important for music reviews because the critic is well-aware of the different genres of music, be it Eastern, Western, jazz, blues or reggae. The critic pours out his knowledge on the entertainment news pages. Readers of these columns can only benefit from the learned wisdom of the critic.

Over the last decade, Dubai has made headlines around the world, mostly due to its larger-than-life developments and staggering rate of growth. Less championed, Dubai is also creating a name for itself in the art world as the new place to do business. A recent survey of 60 international art galleries shows many are turning to the Middle East to open up new opportunities in the contemporary art market and feel Dubai has the potential to be the most important arts hub in the region. It’s particularly good news for Art Dubai, the largest modern and contemporary art fair in the Middle East. The event promises something for all art lovers.

Art Dubai has established itself as a highly significant cultural event on the global art calendar, with a mix of both established international galleries and the most innovative galleries from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (Menasa region).

In 2008, more than Dhs55 million (US$15 million) exchanged hands as serious art collectors sought to top up their portfolios. Among the big deals were Andy Warhol’s depiction of cars, which sold for Dhs7 million (US$1.95 million), photographs by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, which fetched more than Dhs1 million (US$300,000), and a Julian Opie piece that went for Dhs230,000 (US$62,000) Complementing the art on show is the Global Art Forum and inaugural exhibition of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize, the world’s most generous contemporary art award. There is also Art Park, a cutting-edge space focusing mainly on film and video from artists in the Middle East, India and Great Britain, which will be held in the car park of the Madinat Arena.The 2009 event is tied in closely with a number of other cultural projects under way in the Gulf, including Contemparabia and the Sharjah Biennial (see p64). Art Dubai can create a focal point to understand the seriousness of the region’s cultural ambitions.

The market for Chinese contemporary art has developed at a feverish pace, becoming the single fastest-growing segment of the international art market. Since 2004, prices for works by Chinese contemporary artists have increased by 2,000 percent or more, with paintings that once sold for under $50,000 now bringing sums above $1 million. Nowhere has this boom been felt more appreciably than in China, where it has spawned massive gallery districts, 1,600 auction houses, and the first generation of Chinese contemporary-art collectors.

This craze for Chinese contemporary art has also given rise to a wave of criticism. There are charges that Chinese collectors are using mainland auction houses to boost prices and engage in widespread speculation, just as if they were trading in stocks or real estate. Western collectors are also being accused of speculation, by artists who say they buy works cheap and then sell them for ten times the original prices-and sometimes more.

Those who entered this market in the past three years found Chinese contemporary art to be a surefire bet as prices doubled with each sale. Sotheby’s first New York sale of Asian contemporary art, dominated by Chinese artists, brought a total of $13 million in March 2006; the same sale this past March garnered $23 million, and Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale of Chinese contemporary art in April totaled nearly $34 million. Christie’s Hong Kong has had sales of Asian contemporary art since 2004. Its 2005 sales total of $11 million was dwarfed by the $40.7 million total from a single evening sale in May of this year.

Wearable Art Jewelry makes a statement in itself, this type of jewelry is for those of you want to stand out from the crowd. Be prepared to make a statement when wearing a one off creation of wearable art.

This sort of jewelry may come at a price, however, it never loses it’s appeal, truly unique and made to pass on to the next generation. Jewelry which does not follow a certain style or trend but in fact, it creates it’s own appeal as those who wear it and view it know that this form of art has been created to make the wearer feel fabulous!

Calling for the one who dares to wear it to compliment the jewelry with clothing which does not compete with the ‘wearable art’, rather clothing which focuses all the attention on the art rather than the clothes! Low key clothing is all important, your jewelry creates a style all of it’s own. Strapless dresses or sleeveless dresses are the perfect attire for a formal event. The jewelry pieces are just as suited to being worn with a little white or black fitted t-shirt and jeans which are designed to accentuate your style…

In our living room, hanging on ornamental chains from the cathedral ceiling, is a matted and framed 16″ x 20″ print of a picture that I took some time ago. The subject is a pair of wild Canada Geese in silhouette, circling each other, together with their reflections, on a pond. Behind them, at the shoreline, is a background of silhouetted leaves pierced by God-beams at dawn spilling across the water and the two birds. I have always enjoyed looking at it. Why is that? For one thing, it captures a moment at my favorite time of day, which is early morning. And, for another thing, the visual wonders provided by sunlight, mist and water, are three of my favorite things. I can’t put into words the feelings that they evoke within me. And the birds swimming together express an ideal that my wife Joan and I both share, of life-long partnerships.

I cite my experience with that picture, certain that many others doubtless derive similar thoughts and feelings from their favorite artwork, to demonstrate that there is great enjoyment to be had from art you personally love. Do you have such works of art – art you love – in your personal spaces? You really should. Think about the benefits. For starters, there’s enjoyment.

But art you love also provides riches of pure pleasure. A piece of art that seems to you a perfect artistic expression can bring many moments of simple delight. Isn’t that something worthwhile and desirable? With today’s world and the sort of news we are constantly being bombarded with, there is a need to actively seek out, and have around us, things that bring us pleasure. Art you love can do that.

The history of painting reaches far back in time, spanning all cultures, and developments in Eastern painting match those in Western painting, and African-, Indian-, Islamic-, Jewish-, Chinese and Japanese art have had tremendous influence on Western art.

Today Japanese contemporary art takes many forms, ranging from video games, paintings, architecture and advertisements, and although many artists still paint in the traditional manner with black ink and color on paper or silk, other artists are busy exploring new styles and forms.